Booting from USB fails on MacBook Pro 3,1

[probono]

There is no apparent way to boot Ubuntu from a USB drive on a MacBook Pro 3,1 (the Santa Rosa based mid-2007 MBP).

(Some people report success using rEFIt, but that seem to be no MacBook Pro 3,1 users.)

[probono (probono)]

Error: Not found return from legacy loader;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: not found from locatedevicepath;
Error: load error while (re)opening our installation volume;

is the error message from rEFIt

[probono (probono)]

One step closer on booting Ubuntu Live from USB on the Santa Rosa MacBook Pro (MacBookPro3,1):

If you format the USB device with FAT16 and put the following file there, exactly in this place and with this name
/efi/boot/bootx64.efi
then a reboot with the Alt key pressed *does* show the USB device as a bootable device and there is a new icon in rEFIt for booting the /efi/boot/bootx64.efi.

In theory, we should be able to use any x86_64(!) EFI application as the bootx64.efi file. In practice, I don't know whether there is a working EFI application that can successfully boot Ubuntu from USB. I tried 64-bit ELILO from http://downloads.sourceforge.net/elilo/elilo-3.8-x86_64.efi and I got an elilo prompt when I selected the new "boot /efi/boot/bootx64.efi from usb" entry in rEFIt.

At this prompt, I can enter exactly 1 character (which is shown on the screen), but then the keyboard freezes.

When I add a /efi/boot/elilo.conf file and specify a kernel and initrd to load, then elilo does try to load them. So elilo can definitely read from USB via EFI on the MBP. However, it then displays an error message mentioning "system.c" for a millisecond and then immediately reboots.

grub-efi is another EFI boot loader, but apparently grub-mkimage only creates an 32-bit efi file (even on 64-bit Ubuntu) whereas the MBP3,1 needs a x86_64 binary.

Any EFI/elilo experts here?

[Ian Weisser (ian-weisser)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[probono (probono)]

I can see no change in the latest version, so please keep this open.

[Oibaf (oibaf)]

I just tried booting current jaunty from an USB memory stick created with the intrepid tool with latest version of rEFIt and it worked now.

[probono (probono)]

Fabio, did you try both the 32 bit and the 64 bit version?

[Oibaf (oibaf)]

Citando probono <email address hidden>:

> Fabio, did you try both the 32 bit and the 64 bit version?

My MacBook Pro is a Core Duo, so it only supports the 32 bit version. It started to work recently (jaunty). Intrepid didn't work.

Fabio

[probono (probono)]

Fabio, you are obviously not referring to the MacBook Pro 3,1 then, which is a 64 bit machine.

Please check your model (in Mac OS X) with:
sysctl hw.model

If this doesn't return "hw.model: MacBookPro3,1" for you, then this bug doesn't affect you...

[Oibaf (oibaf)]

I'm indeed on a MacBook Pro 1, but I thought that both versions had the same problem. Reopen if it isn't fixed for later MacBook Pro.

[Tsuki (tsuki-deactivatedaccount)]

Same issue here, Jaunty RC on a Macbook 3,1. From reading around on the net, I'm not convinced this is particularly an Ubuntu problem but a Mac / rEFIt problem, and sadly not one that there's a solution to.

[bJXjLjEHIaWT0tFd (bjxjljehiawt0tfd-deactivatedaccount)]

I have the exact same problem with a MacBook 3,1 (e.g. the *non*-pro version).

[probono (probono)]

Here is a solution that worked for me:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7275427&postcount=762

If you place this (fat binary) file on your FAT formatted USB stick to
/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
/EFI/BOOT/BOOTIA32.EFI
then when you insert the stick into an Intel Mac and press "Alt", an icon called "EFI Boot" shows up and you can boot from this USB stick into GRUB2.

Place the following in /efi/boot/grub.cfg on your USB stick to boot Ubuntu Live automatically:

# Timeout for menu
set timeout=0

# Set default boot entry as Entry 0
set default=0

# Entry 0 - Load Linux kernel
menuentry "Ubuntu Live" {
fakebios
search --set /casper/vmlinuz
linux /casper/vmlinuz boot=casper video=efifb agp=off show-cow noprompt -- debian-installer/language=de console-setup/layoutcode=de max_loop=32
initrd /casper/initrd.gz
boot
}

[bernstein (bernstein)]

Although the instructions above do make ubuntu bootable, they don't work with gpu acceleration (e.g. any driver except fbdev)...

So the issue still persists on my MacBookPro 3,1....

[Hicks (hicks1gb)]

Any idea?

[linkxscmp (linkxscmp)]

This actually affects me on a 2006 MacBookPro2,2. I didn't try the fix listed by Probono, as it seems to be a solution for Grub, not refit, which seems to cause this in the first place. This is marked as fix released, yet I don't see an actual fix for this in the comments.

I do realize this bug is almost 4 years old, but thought I'd throw this out there.

Thanks.